By Carina
Featured in this interview we have Smrithi Senthilnathan, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Rewrite the Stars Review. She will be telling us about the magazine, her other projects, and giving some useful advice. You can also find Smrithi on her Instagram,
Carina: To begin, why don’t you introduce yourself?
Smrithi: Hi! I'm Smrithi, the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Rewrite the Stars Review. I recently finished high school and will be going to college this fall to study journalism and data science :).
Interesting! So, why did you start Rewrite the Stars Review?
I've always loved writing since I was a child. I was going through some old trinkets the other day and I found my 5-year-old journal where my dream ambitions were to be an author and rockstar haha. Over the years, writing remained more of a hobby that would mostly surface during school competitions and the occasional short story but nothing more than that. During the pandemic though, I had a lot more free time on my computer and I got back into writing. The first year of the pandemic, I spent a lot of time on my own projects and wrote my first novel. The second year, I started exploring a lot of online writing communities! I created my own writing account on Instagram and interacted with a lot of people there. Through these communities, I discovered the concepts of literary magazines and publications. I submitted to a couple of them and had my fair share of acceptances and rejections.
One thing I noticed though was that a lot of the pieces published in these magazines seemed to be very deep and cryptic and involved a lot of figurative language. Although they were nice to read, they also felt daunting to me as an amateur author because almost everything I wrote was pretty direct and straightforward. It heightened my impostor syndrome and fears that I’ll never be as good as the greats.
I started Rewrite The Stars Review primarily for authors like me. For amateur authors who are just figuring out how to use language at their disposal. Through this magazine, I try to emphasize the different shapes and sizes writing comes in. After all, art isn't about the words but the emotion and what it makes you feel :).
That’s amazing! Did anyone or anything in specific inspire aspects of Rewrite the Stars Review?
That's a great question! Honestly, since it was a while ago, I can't remember any specific things I was inspired by but I definitely drew inspiration from a lot of magazines on Instagram for the layouts of posts and issues and the website. I do remember though that at the time, my favorite small magazines were Healthline Zine, Cloudscent Journal, and Ice Lolly Review.
Those are definitely some other amazing magazines with many achievements. Do you have any big plans for the future of Rewrite the Stars?
I definitely do want to start thinking about physical copies of issues and charity work! One big motto of RTS is that we believe anyone can be an artist and you don't need a degree or professional courses to be able to create art. Although our contributors are primarily young authors, we do have a few older authors who are discovering the beauty of writing later in life and try their hand at it! So it's very important to me that eventually RTS contributes to improving access to education and literacy for underprivileged children. I haven't thought about it much until now since RTS was just starting out, but I do have ideas in mind that I want to work on now, especially since I'm an adult.
Those are amazing ideas, I can’t wait to see them implemented! Could you tell us what it’s like to be the founder and Editor in Chief of a magazine? What are some of your responsibilities and favorite things to do?
Of course! So honestly my duties aren't set in stone and they've changed a lot over the two years that I've been running RTS. At the very beginning, I was handling almost all the departments including graphic designing and social media. After more members have joined the team, I'm grateful to have been able to lighten my duties by spreading responsibilities among different people.
Currently the main thing I do is curate the issue. That involves reading through all the submissions and providing feedback, discussing with other editors on which pieces we want to publish, emailing submitters, and publishing the issue (for more information on how our submission process works, you can check our article about the behind the scenes of RTS).
I also unofficially do a lot of things though. I delegate duties to others and make sure everybody's doing their job. I provide my feedback and suggestions on designs and blog articles. I help coordinate events and suggest ideas on what kind of events to hold. In case somebody is unavailable for a particular week, I help pitch in to ensure their work gets done. I review new staff applications and help to train staff members. I lay out plans for RTS and set goals for the team.
There's a scene from the show Brooklyn 99 that I adore where one character says to another that being a leader isn't about having lofty targets and meeting all of them, but rather it's about putting out fires. A lot of the things I do for RTS may just be simple things that just involve a couple of messages, but I'd like to think that simply the fact that I'm there when the team needs me provides a feeling of comfort in the knowledge that someone else is taking care of things and making sure they're done properly!
As for my favorite things to do, well that's a difficult question because I love almost every aspect of running this magazine haha! If I had to pick, I'd say my favorite thing is a tie between reading all the lovely work sent to us, and responding to emails from contributors! I especially love when someone tells us that RTS is their first publication, or they squeal with love for our magazine in an email. It makes me smile every time to see that RTS actually has a positive impact on people.
Your hard work, even if it just seems like small things, is definitely noticed! I saw you mentioned a novel earlier. So, can you give us more information about some of your other projects?
Aw thank you, that means a lot to me. So I'll be completely honest, I haven't had a lot of time to work on my writing in the past year because I was in 12th grade and had to balance my schoolwork with college applications and chose to use my extra time for my writing account and RTS (because when I actually wrote my novel I wanted to be devoted to it). Now though, I'm on summer break and hope to actually draft my idea!
I don't have much to give you right now but the book itself is a Hunger Games-esque novel where royalty choose representatives to fight for them in a life-or-death tournament to decide the next monarch of the country! It's set in a world with a magic system inspired by Indian culture, and I'm very excited to get started on it soon!
That sounds cool, I’ll have to check it out once it’s finished! Do you have any advice for balancing projects, school, and a personal life?
The main thing that has helped me is to make schedules and lists. I have daily to-do lists, weekly check-ins, and monthly goals. It's a lot more convenient to track what you need to do and how when it's outlined in front of you, instead of just trying to do it inside your head. Reading Atomic Habits by James Clear gave me a new perspective on productivity and I have since implemented a lot of the techniques in that. I would definitely recommend reading the book - or at the very least subscribing to his weekly newsletter!
I think it's also important to know your priorities and when to prioritize what. I took breaks from RTS during my most important exams and although I was still available to text, I made sure I didn't have any major duties per say and delegated all my work (shoutout to my beautiful wonderful team for supporting me throughout all of it and motivating me, I love you guys <3). I also made sure that I prioritized my social life and didn't stay cooped up in my house all the time. I'm not a very social person but I went out with my friends once a month!
I think it's all about just good planning and being able to go with the flow. Plans do break sometimes, especially when your mother announces a random family member's wedding that we need to attend, but as long as you try to get as much done when you can and don't fret too much about incomplete to-do lists, you'll be fine :).
Thank you for that! Finally, is there any other advice you have for other young and ambitious people?
1) Be bold and unafraid to explore. Try different genres and styles and art forms. Never limit your creativity. Don't be afraid to take risks. My favorite thing about art is that there's no set definition for it so there is literally no limit to the things you could do - you could even create your own artform!
2) Never tie yourself down to arbitrary standards. Don't do things for other people or because others are doing them. Your art is valid and nobody can take that away from you. It doesn't matter if you write poetry or fanfiction, it doesn't matter if you write everyday or once a year, it doesn't matter if you've published eleven books or you never want to publish. You are a writer, you are an artist, and you're valid.
3) Make art a priority. It can be so easy to say "Oh I wish I could write but I never have time!" but I personally believe that you can always make time for things that you want. Obviously you should never force yourself to write, but if you truly do want to write then try to make time for that. One of my favorite quotes is "the price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret". Easier to wake up earlier or stop procrastinating rather than regret it later.
Note: In some parts of this interview Smrithi talks about writing in general instead of art, because she herself is a writer. But, Rewrite the Stars Review still publishes and appreciates art!
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